Thai name: Makham wan
Season: December to March
The fruit is, as the name suggests, a sweet variety of a fruit generally associated with an acid taste. After being peeled it is generally eaten fresh, though boiled in water it also makes a refreshing juice. Other, more sour varieties of tamarind are used in various cooked dishes for flavoring.
On April 10, 1689, the French general Desfarges led an expedition to re-capture the island of Phuket in an attempt to restore some sort of French control in Siam. The occupation of the island led nowhere, and Desfarges returned to Pondicherry in January 1690.